By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

Ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PEOPLE sentenced to prison for life, including murderers, will be eligible for parole under the newly released Conditional Release of Offenders Bill.

The bill, which has been in the works for over a decade, outlines the parole regime, which involves the conditional release of prisoners before they complete their sentences.

When sentencing people for life imprisonment, courts would be required to specify the minimum period of incarceration that offenders must serve before being eligible for parole consideration.

The bill says that period must "satisfy the requirements of retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation".

Murderers sentenced to life must serve at least 25 years.

People who are not sentenced to life imprisonment could be eligible for full parole consideration after serving at least sixty percent of their sentence and for day parole after serving 50 percent.

A Unit of Offender Rehabilitation and Re-entry Services would be established to interview parole applicants and victims of offences. That unit would decide whether the applicant is a suitable candidate for conditional release on parole, assess the risks of the applicant re-offending and endangering the community, and make a recommendation regarding the suitability of the applicant's proposed residence.

The unit would also make recommendations on the conditions to be imposed on the applicant if parole is granted.

A board of twenty people would be established to review applications for conditional release on parole and either grant or refuse them. The board could also suspend or revoke conditions imposed on applicants after parole is granted.

The board could mandate that a parolee be electronically monitored.

The bill outlines the procedure for an emergency recall of a grant of parole.

Parolees who are arrested and charged with a criminal offence while on parole have "the status of an offender on remand". Their parole is immediately revoked. Once parole is forfeited, a person could be sentenced to two years.